Cudweeds & Fleabanes

Cudweeds, Rayless Fleabanes and Wormwoods

Daisy Family - Asteraceae

Common Cudweed Filago germanica

Native throughout Europe, eastwards through the Middle East to Central Asia and India. Small plants from 5-40cm in height, sometimes growing in tight swards with many plants packed close together. Stem leaves linear and relatively narrow compared with closely-related species; leaf-tip tapered to a point. Flowerheads like furry, spiky balls at the tops of woolly, upright stems, each cluster of florets being surrounded by a few, spiky-looking outer bracts that are straw-coloured.


Habit	Flowerheads	Basal leaves	Stem leaves

Broad-leaved Cudweed Filago pyramidata

Native from Macaronesia and southern Europe eastwards to Tibet and the Arabian Peninsul. Differs from Common Cudweed by its clearly broader leaves and by the array of leafy bracts that surround the flowerheads. Often very short, with plants barely reaching a few centimetres in height with a single stem topped with a few flowers.


Habit	Flowerheads	Flowerheads	Stem leaf

Pygmy Cudweed Filago pygmaea

Native throughout the Mediterranean Region. Widespread on open and disturbed ground, often forming small colonies in dry, stony places.


Habit	Habit	Habit	Flowers

Narrow-leaved Cudweed Logfia gallica

Native throughout the Mediterranean Region. Widespread on open and disturbed ground.


Habit	Habit	Habit	Flowers and leaves

Flowers	Flowers	Leaf

Small Cudweed Logfia minima

Native throughout Europe and parts of the Mediterranean Region. Small plants from 5-30cm in height, often growing in discreet little colonies of plants; the entire plant is densely white-hairy. Stem leaves linear with shortly tapered tips. Flowerheads in small clusters, typically just four or five in a head and held above the stem leaves. Stems very slender, forked at the first flowerheads to produce a second, upper layer of heads.


Habit	Habit	Flowerheads	Flowerheads

Basal leaves	Basal leaves	Stem leaves	Old seedhead

Scentless Curry-plant Helichrysum stoechas ssp. barrelieri

Native throughout the Mediterranean Region, with the subspecies barrelieri occurring in the central and eastern Mediterranean and the nominate subspecies to the west. Widespread on open ground and in frigana.


Habit	Habit	Habit	Flowerhead

Leaves

Eastern Phagnalon Phagnalon graecum

Native in the Balearics and in the central and eastern Mediterranean Region. Common on rock faces and old stone walls.


Habit	Flowerhead	Leaves

Pyramidal Fleabane Erigeron sumatrensis

(Guernsey Fleabane) Native to Central and South America. A weed of cultivation and disturbed ground in urban areas.


Habit	Flower spike	Flowerheads	Flowerhead

Basal rosette	Leaf petiole

Canadian Fleabane Erigeron canadensis

Native to much of the Americas, but now almost cosmopolitan as a weed of cultivation. Plants overall pale, yellowish-green in colour. Basal leaves relatively narrow, entire or with a few uneven lobes along the margins; petioles with well-spaced, long white hairs. Flower spike typically columnar with relatively short, spreading side branches and a rounded top. Stems with scattered white hairs. Flowerheads 3-5mm wide at maturity; greenish phyllaries narrow, relatively smooth with a few white, bristly hairs. Ligules (petals) usually clearly longer than the phyllaries.


Habit	Flower spike	Flowerheads	Flowerhead

Basal rosette	Leaf petiole

Argentine Fleabane Erigeron bonariensis

(Hairy Fleabane) Native to Central and South America. A weed of cultivated places and roadsides and rapidly increasing in the Mediterranean Region and many other areas.


Flower spike	Flowerheads	Flowerhead	Flowerhead

Flowerhead	Seedheads	Upper stem leaf	Stem

Southern Saltmarsh Aster Symphyotrichum squamatum

Native to South America but widely introduced throughout the Mediterranean Region and in South Africa and North America. Typically a weed of urban areas. Often considered a subspecies or variety of Annual Saltmarsh Aster (Symphyotrichum subulatum).


Habit	Habit	Flowerhead	Phyllaries

Leaf	Seedhead

Common Mugwort Artemisia vulgaris

Native throughout most of Europe and Asia and widely introduced elsewhere. A very variable species in the shape of its leaves, which tend to have broader lobes on basal, early-season leaves and narrow, fingered lobes on upper leaves. The leaves are green above and contrastingly whitish below with a strong but not unpleasant aroma. An aggressive perennial that can spread to form large colonies of dense stems, to 150cm in height.